Blood-drenched Butterfly Wings
by skullcandyklive
Summary: A light flutter of weightless wings from a butterfly that retains its color and innocence cannot change a thing, for only a butterfly fluttering with wings that have grown heavy with guilt and drenched with the blood of countless lives is capable of evoking a change.
1. Prologue

**.**

 **Blood-drenched Butterfly Wings**

 **Prologue**

 **..**

 **Original Title:** **Akame Ga Kill**

 **Original Concept by:** **Takahiro and Tashiro**

 **..**

 **Written by: Skullcandyklive**

 **..**

 _...Imperial Year 1024, Day 10, 12:00 Midnight..._

 _._

The best-laid plans never come to fruition. No matter how much effort you put into planning something; no matter how well you thought your plan through, something will inevitably go wrong and all your careful planning will start unraveling at the seams. Simply because no mere human can take everything into account.

In this particular case, three childhood friends had planned to journey to the Imperial Capital and join the imperial army in order to earn enough money to send back to their village. However, their plans were thrown into chaos and disarray when they were separated by a bandit attack and were forced to make the rest of their journey oblivious to each other's condition.

Another thing they failed to take into account was the truth behind what the capital was truly like; a truth that two of these childhood friends were about to witness firsthand, should their fates remain unchanged.

Under the light of the blood moon, a seemingly innocuous storage house stood in the center of a grassy clearing, which was built on the land of a family of wealthy oil merchants in the imperial capital.

Approaching said storage house was the daughter and youngest member of this wealthy merchant family currently being flanked by four guards armed with various weapons. Contrary to the blank, albeit uneasy expressions plastered on the guard's face, the youngest girl sported a smile on her face that expressed an eager anticipation for the events that were about to unfold.

A few hours ago, this young blond-haired girl had happened upon two young travelers from the country who were trying to reach the imperial capital and had not only offered them a ride to the capital, but a place to stay and warm food as well.

"I think it's time we give our new guests the warm welcome they deserve, don't you think?" The daughter, Aria, said with an eager grin stretching across her face as she walked towards the storage house.

The guards said nothing, only followed their young charge towards the large storage house.

.

Sayo did not awake to pleasant circumstances.

A few seconds prior, she had been awaken by a ghastly odor wafting into her nostrils that was revolting enough to make her want to empty the contents of her stomach as her insides twist and turn uncontrollably for several minutes.

After getting over her initial reaction to jerk her head away and wrinkle her nose at the pungent odor, Sayo managed to open her eyes and find the source of the unbearable stench. Not even a full second later, Sayo wished she had just kept her eyes closed.

Surrounding the girl on all four side were numerous mutilated and maimed corpses that were poised in various specific conditions that led up to their death; some bodies were drawn and quartered on a torture table with several limbs forcibly torn off from blood-caked, maggot-infested bodies by ropes that were attached to four wheels on each corner, some bodies were imprisoned in a cage, gripping the bars in desperation, their skin peppered with dark red sores and their gaping faces etched in an eternal, malformed scream, and the rest of the bodies were dangling from the ceiling either by a noose arounded their necks or shackled by their hands and eacg and every last one of them sported gaping lacerations all over their bodies and blood-caked bones sticking out of where their arms or legs used to be, some hanging bodies were even missing the entire lower half of their body, exposing their intestines and inner organs for them to plop down on the blood-coated floor.

Sayo's blood had ran cold when she realized that _she_ was hanging naked on the ceiling by her shackled hands and that _she_ was going to end up just like the bodies that surrounded her in a few short hours, if not mere minutes.

After recovering from the mind-numbing shock, Sayo had instantly struggled against her restraints in an attempt free herself and escape the fate that had befallen the people that now surrounded her. Alas, her efforts were in all vain, since she was still hanging by the ceiling with her facial features etched in despair and tears streaking down her cheeks through her closed eyes

So yes, Sayo did not awake to pleasant circumstances; her circumstances were anything but pleasant at the moment.

As Sayo hung by her shackled hands awaiting her inevitable fate with teary frustration, she couldn't help but think about how unfair this all was; that this wasn't how their journey was supposed to go. They were supposed to arrive at the capital together, join the imperial army, climb up the ranks to become high ranking officials, and earn enough money to send back to their village. That's how it was supposed to go; they weren't supposed to get attacked by bandits, they weren't supposed to get separated, her and Ieyasu weren't supposed to be taken in by that young blond girl, and they were _not_ supposed to end up like this, being tortured to death like all the other poor unfortunate souls that surrounded them whose families and loved ones remain oblivious to their unfortunate fates and left to wonder what had happened to them. Was Tatsumi and the rest of the village gonna end up like friends and families of the dead people that surrounded her? Probably. Sayo knew that it would be hard for her friend, going on with his life left to wonder what had happened to them and never being able to find out the truth because like all the bodies that surrounded her, she too would be joining them soon, left for dead and eventually crumbling to ash in the dark, never to be seen again.

Sayo suddenly gritted her teeth in anger as her eyes flashed in rage. The thought of the young blond girl who had taken the two of them in suddenly made her blood boil. She was the one who did this, she was the one who did all this to people that died around her and she was the one who was going to do all this to them.

With renewed vigor and blind fury clouding her mind and coursing through her veins, Sayo resumed her earlier struggles against her shackles as she thrashed and flailed every which way, the sound of her enraged screams and clanging chains resonating in the empty silence of the storage house.

To a degree, she knew that her efforts to escape were in vain and that she was probably only wasting what little energy she had left, but she couldn't bring herself to care at that moment because she was far too furious at the young girl who had done this to them and far too determined to make that girl pay for this. Still, even in her furious haze, she wondered if the girl even knew the consequences of what she was going to do with them. If they died here and if, heaven forbid, the same thing happened to Tatsumi, then there wouldn't be anyone who could send money back to their village and if that happened then it would only be a matter of time before the village suffered from starvation and hundreds of innocent people would needlessly die. Didn't that girl understand that? Then again, even if she did, its likely that she wouldn't even care one way or the other and that's what made Sayo so furious; that girl had no right to do this to them, she had no right to sentence their village to such an ill fate, and she had no right to leave Tatsumi wondering what had happened to his two childhood friends.

Amidst her own screaming and the sounds her chains clanging, Sayo heard a faint groan coming from one of the prison cages below on the storage house floor. Immediately turning to the source of the sound, her heart sank with dread as she saw Ieyasu trying to stand up as he grabbed the bars of his cage for support.

"Ugh...my head...where am I?" Ieyasu mumbled as he slowly came to awareness.

"Ieyasu!" Sayo called out to get his attention, her heart feeling heavy in her chest with the knowledge that Ieyasu was here as well and that he would endure whatever that little girl had planned for them.

"What? S-Sayo?" Ieyasu mumbled as he lifted his half-lidded gaze towards his childhood friend, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. When it finally did clear, Ieyasu's eyes practically bugged out of their sockets and blood rushed to his face as he realized one thing.

"Y-You're Naked!"

Any other time, Sayo would have a plethora of reactions to being seen in such a compromising situation by a _boy_ no less, most of which were reasonable reactions for any girl to make when caught in such a situation, like squealing, covering her exposed body, and dishing out an unparalleled rage that only a girl who had been seen naked could unleash. However, given her current position, she could do none of those things. Furthermore, they had far more pressing and more dire things to worry about than something as trivial as indecent and excessive skin exposure.

Something that Ieyasu had just realized, seeing as that all blood had drained from his face, leaving it with an ashen white color, as his eyes finally took in the gruesome sight that laid before him and the gut-wrenching stench of death and decay that accompanied it, which almost made him empty his stomach right then and there.

When he finally recovered from the overwhelming shock, Ieyasu only opened and closed his mouth repeatedly like a gaping fish, before he finally managed to stutter out one question. "Wh-what the hell is this place?"

Hell on Earth was what Sayo wanted to say, but that description scarcely did the place justice.

"Apparently, that girl wasn't as kind as she made herself out to be." Sayo grounded out through gritted teeth, her blood boiling at the mention of Aria.

"Sh-she really did all this?" Ieyasu asked, completely stunned in disbelief as he tried to reconcile the image of the smiling young girl who offered them a place to stay and the horrifying scenery that surrounded them.

Sayo nodded gravely in return as she watched Ieyasu struggle with the revelation. It was definitely a hard pill to swallow, but it was the truth nonetheless.

As if on cue, the doors to the storage house suddenly swung open with loud creak, instantly gaining the attention of the two friends. The sound of shoes clacking against the blood-caked concrete floor resonated through the still silence.

"Oh good, you two are awake, isn't that just convenient." The eager voice Aria floated in the silent storage house as she continued her cadence towards Sayo and Ieyasu.

"That saves us some time then, I would have hated to wait for the two of you to wake up. Afterall..." An almost inhumanly wicked smile stretched across her face and her eyes flashed with malicious intent as their would-be tormentor came into view a black whip in hand. "...it wouldn't be all that fun to torture you farm animals if you're not even awake to scream or beg for mercy, right?"

"YOU!" Such a malicious declaration reignited Sayo's righteous fury as she struggled to get out of her restraints with renewd vigor. "When I get out of these shackles, I'm going to make you pay!"

Aria merely smirked as she glanced at the raven-haired girl. "You're in no position to be making threats here, country bitch."

Aria continued walking into the storage house, as she smiled to herself and hummed a tune under her breath, ignoring the sounds of Sayo shouting, chains clanging, and bars slamming.

She stopped when she was almost directly in front of Sayo. "Rude greetings aside, let me be the first to welcome you two to the real Imperial Capital" Aria said cheerfully with outstretched arms in grandeur.

Sayo and Ieyasu's only response was to shout out in rage as they continued their respective struggles.

"Tut tut, now is that any way to greet the girl who had generously offered you a place to stay and warm food to eat" Aria mock-lectured with a waggle of her whip, only to be answered by a enraged and outraged shouts.

"We didn't do anything to deserve this, you sadistic freak and you have no right to kill other people for your sick and twisted entertainment!"

Apparently, Sayo's statement had struck a nerve with the young sadist as her playful smirk finally slipped off her face and her features contorted into an expression of vicious anger.

"SO WHAT?! YOU TRASH ARE JUST WORTHLESS FILTH! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT LIVESTOCK FOR ME TO USE AS I SEE FIT!" Aria pointed a finger at Sayo as she continued her screeching temper tantrum. "GARBAGE LIKE YOU DOESN'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUCH BEAUTIFUL HAIR, WHEN MINE IS GIVING ME SUCH TROUBLE! YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL THAT YOU'RE GOING TO DIE BY SATISFYING MY BLOODLUST, UNFRATEFUL PIG!"

At that, Aria's screeching tirade was punctuated by the sound of her ragged panting from the exertion she had put in her vicious declaration. All the while, Sayo and Ieyasu just kept on shooting hatred-filled glares at the girl. No, monster would've been a more accurate description.

Gradually, Aria's pants turned into sinister giggles that would make shivers run down the spines of the weak-willed. Sayo and Ieyasu were too occupied by their hatred and fury to be afraid.

Aria turned her gleaming wicked eyes to Ieyasu, who simply returned her gaze with one that was filled with unflinching righteous fury, hatred, and resolve.

"Mother has something special planned for you tomorrow night." Aria said with palpable malevolence oozing in her tone, before her shark-like grin widened as she continued. "Do you know what that means?"

Ieyasu's glare was unyielding even as his blood started to run cold in his veins with the realization of what he was about to witness. He only gripped the bars tighter, refusing to answer their tormentor.

A wicked chuckle escaped Aria's lips before her face had somehow became even more malevolent than it already was. She practically oozed malice and bloodlust like a palpable mist around her being as she slowly turned sinister her gaze back to Sayo.

"It means that you'll get to watch as I torture this farm animal to death, like the filthy livestock that she is"

At that, the sounds Ieyasu's violent thrashing and anger-filled shouts increased in the background as the two girl entered a stare down. Periwinkle blue met coal black, one pair of eyes emanating malicious intent and promises of excruciating bodily harm and one pair emanating unparalleled hatred, righteous fury, and firm resolve.

"So, let's get started shall we?" Aria asked rhetorically, her malevolent grin never leaving her face. "If you start begging for mercy, I might just take pity on you and end your misery sooner."

"Go to Hell, Bitch." Was all Sayo said.

Aria threw her whip back to instantly lash out at the raven-haired girl, while Sayo gritted her teeth and closed her eyes to brace herself for what was to come.

Time seemed to freeze in an everlasting moment as a katana with a pitch black hilt suddenly fell right in front of Aria mid-swing, embedding itself in the concrete floor with a resonating clang, scarce inches separating the blade and the girl. The sound of metal impacting concrete resonated through the storage house as Aria gaped in utter shock, her malevolence instantly giving way to fear as her face was suddenly drained of any color and etched its features in a gaping wide-eyed scream, her gaze never leaving the seemingly innocuous katana that was mere inches away from cutting her. For their part, Sayo and Ieyasu were just as shocked as Aria was, if their gaping expressions were anything to go by, but they also felt an undercurrent of relief and bit of satisfaction as well.

The moment passed and time suddenly started moving again. Aria let out a startled scream as she started backing away from the sword. She managed to take three staggering steps backwards, before another silencing clang resonated through the storage house and Aria suddenly felt the chill of cold metal pressing against the length of her back through her clothes.

Fear and anxiety gripping her heart and clouding all of her sense, she looked over her shoulder to find another katana, completely identical to the one that came before it except for the red hilt, embedded on the concrete and pressing against her clothed back.

Letting out another startled scream, Aria turned on her heel in an attempt to back away from the new sword, only to fall flat on her butt as she tripped on her own two feet out of fear.

Another silencing clang resounded in the storage house and Aria suddenly felt the back of her dress being torn. Looking over he shoulder, her eyes widened in fear when she saw another red-hilted katana pressing against the bare skin of her back.

With her heart frantically beating like a humming bird's wings in her chest, her blood coursing through her veins like ice water, her anxious ragged breaths filling the silent atmosphere and her psyche being plagued by overwhelming terror, Aria tried to swallow the mountain that was lodged in her throat to call the guards for help.

Her attempts were instantly silenced when another red-hilted katana embedded itself on the concrete flooring mere inches to her right with a silencing clang. Before she could recover or so much as let out a startled scream, Aria was silenced by another red hilted katana embedding itself on the concrete flooring to her left, which was quickly followed by another and another and another until the storage house was filled with a silencing cacophony of metallic clangs that lasted mere seconds, during which Aria had closed her eyes in fear.

When she reopened them, Aria found herself surrounded by a tight encirclement of red-hilted katanas embedded in the concrete flooring around her, trapping her in a makeshift cage with their razor sharp edges pointed towards her and positioned in such a way that they were scarce inches from drawing blood.

Her entire body felt cold and numbed, her heart beated frantically against her chest, her ears were ringing with the blood pounding in her head and something bubbled from the pit of her stomach.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Finally overwhelmed by the fear that plagued her and the sheer danger she was in, a blood-curdling scream loud enough to be heard across the clearing erupted from her mouth and echoed in the storage house after forcing its way through the mountain lodged in her throat.

Not a second sooner, the storage house doors slammed open, revealing the four guards in their white uniforms with their respective weapons at the ready.

"Lady Aria?!"

Upon seeing the state their young mistress was currently in, the guards all charged into the storage house with nary a second thought. They were only mere feet away from the cage of swords, when a rain of red-hilted katanas suddenly embedded themselves onto the concrete in front of them with a rapid succession of metallic clangs and stopped them dead in their tracks.

Needless to say, the guards weren't faring any better than Aria.

"What the?!"

"What the hell's going on here?!"

"Don't panic, just stay calm!"

Nary a second after those words were uttered, another volley of red-hilted katanas rained down on the guards, embedding themselves in the concrete behind them and between each other with a silencing cacophony of clangs, which trapped the guards in their current crescent-shaped formation with a makeshift cage of blades in front of their young mistress.

Silence ensued as the living occupants of the storage house tried to recover from the shock and process the events that had just unfolded in the span of less than a minute.

It wasn't long before the silence was abruptly shattered by a pair of red-hilted katanas embedding themselves on the concrete floor on either side of the black-hilted katana with resounding clangs.

With all eyes on the trio of blades standing innocously in front of them, a shadow suddenly fell upon the red katana on the left, before a figure descended from the ceiling and landed in a perfect perch on the hilt of the blade.

The slightly short figure standing steadily on the hilt of the blade with the utmost of ease wore a dark crimson cloak with a hood that shrouded most of the wearer's features. Held firmly in the figure's hand was a chain wrapped firmly around a pair of large black boxes, one box was filled to the brim with red hilts and the other was almost empty, having only ten or so katanas. However, these bundles of katanas weren't what the living occupants of the storage house had their eyes focused on.

A pair of blood red eyes that seemed to pierce their very soul stared at them through the red-rimmed eyeholes of the ivory white mask that hid the entirety of the wearer's face. The mask itself had no mouth, but the area between the eyeholes, where the nose and mouth should've been, jutted out and extended past the wearer's hairline like horns to form a "V" shape.

Also, in the area that jutted out between the mask's eyeholes, where the nosepiece should be, the was a peculiar symbol: A red full circle inside the concave of a red horizontal crescent.

For what seemed like an eternity, the occupant's eyes were riveted by the same thing, the figure who stood before them unmovingly as if it hadn't just made an attempt on five of the occupant's lives.

Snapping out of their stupor, the guards picked up their guns and raised them in prepapration to open fire on the figure that stood motionlessly on the hilt of the sword, as if they weren't in any danger whatsoever.

"Ready." the guards shouted as the trained their sights on the figure and placed their fingers on the trigger.

"Aim." The figure remained unmoving.

"Fi-"

The only warning they had was a rapid whirling sound filling the air and before the guards could even react their arms were all lobbed off at the elbow before flopping to the ground listlessly, still gripping their guns. The guards could do little more than gape down at their arms in shock and disbelief, the realization of what had just happened having not sunken in yet. Only when the excruciating pain finally kicked in did the whole truth of what had just happened to them settled into their minds and the four guards let out their own blood-curdling screams which remained unheard by anyone who wasn't near the storage house clearing.

Meanwhile, a shadow fell upon the red-hilted katana on the right before a second figure landed on it in perch a similar to the first figure.

The second figure wordlessly raised her right hand, catching the whirling weapon that had just amputated four pairs of arms in mid-air, revealing the weapon to be an 8-pointed, red and black Fuma shuriken that was almost as big as the figure itself.

Weapon of choice aside, the second figure looked a lot like the first figure, both of them having the same slightly short stature, the same dark red cloak, that is until the second figure raised it head to meet Aria's increasingly frightened gaze.

Unlike the first, the second figure had a different mask hiding their features, although they did share the same piercing red eyes. The second figure's mask was also white and lacked a mouth, but its shape and symmetrical red paint designs made it look like a fox. The same peculiar symbol was also plastered on the mask's forehead.

"Ronin" the second figure greeted in an eerie monotonous tone and even though the voice came out slightly distorted, it sounded like the figure was a young girl.

The first figure, Ronin, nodded to her companion.

"Kitsune." Ronin greeted in a similarly monotonous tone and an analogous distorted voice.

As the guard's agonized screams persisted in the background, a third shadow fell upon the black-hilted katana in the middle, landing in a perch on the black hilt.

"Monarch." The other two figures greeted monotonously with a tilt of their heads in acknowledgement.

The third figure, Monarch, wore a dark red cloak, had the same piercing red eyes and a similar stature, just like the other two, with the only noticeable difference being the mask's design itself. Monarch's mask, like the others, was ivory white in color and made of smooth ceramic. The shape of the mask's upper half was reminiscent of a butterfly's wings spreading out to cover majority of the front, corners, and the sides of the face, except the edges and corners of the wings were sharper. The mask's eyeholes were also rimmed with red markings made to look like eyes and the mask's lower half was a single piece of ivory white ceramic that covered the lower half of the face like a half mask and receded to make the upper half jut out slightly.

The three figures loomed over the would-be tormentor silently from their perch; three pairs of piercing blood red eyes staring down at a single pair of terrified periwinkle blue ones.

Aria felt like death itself was breathing down her neck as she met the unblinking gaze of the trio in front of her. Her guards were all but useless now, seeing as that they weren't just trapped in a cage similar to hers but bleeding to death as well. Aria wanted to beg and plead for them to spare her life; she wanted to open her mouth and start bargaining with these trio of assassins by offering them a place as her guards in exchange for gold or whatever it was they wanted.

However, through the sheer terror that she felt, she could do none of those things. Instead, she opened her mouth to voice the one question that was swirling in everyone's minds in a barely audible whisper.

"Who are you?"

As one the trio answered the girl with an eerie unison in a mingling of their distorted voices that portrayed no emotion whatsoever.

"The Sisters of the Blood Moon"

 **.**

 **-End Prologue-**

 **.**

 **Author's Notes: Okay, so I never really expected the last part of this prologue to have so many words. I mean seriously I didn't think Aria getting the living daylights scared out of her would need this many words but anyways tell me what you guys thought about the first chapter to this new story? Was it too wordy? Was I being too redundant in my descriptions? Let me know in the review section.**

 **Also, I'd like to point this out real quick: I am not abandoning any of my previous stories, okay? It's just that all of my Akame Ga Kill stories have very different plots and themes to them:**

 **With "Fool's Errands", the theme will be more along the lines of a robin hood adventure story that explores the different places that surround the Imperial Capital with some hints of romance here and there.**

 **With "Of Gold and Blood Red Eyes", the theme is more along the lines of two assassins who have been deprived of a normal childhood slowly recovering from their blood-drenched pasts and adjusting to their budding feelings of romance.**

 **With "The Three Children of Impertinens", the theme is more along the lines of an RPG-styled adventure story about three friends who meet new people while on their journey to the Imperial capital.**

 **And with "Blood-drenched Butterfly Wings", well the theme will mostly revolve around a drama about Night Raid dealing with another group of assassins and a more indept, behind-the-scenes look at Tatsumi's life as an assassin.**

 **Ergo, the story that I write a new chapter for depends entirely on my current mood, whether I'm feeling daring, romantic, adventurous, or angsty, because I write chapters the best when my mood matches the theme of the story I'm writing.**

 **Also, this story would be the first installment to a Literary Universe I have in mind that will comprise of multiple stories, a sequel or two after this, a spin-off here and there, and maybe even a prequel or two. Anyways, it all depends on how well-received this story is. I don't really want to waste my time writing sequels, prequels, and spin-offs if no one would like to read them.**

 **See you next time.**


	2. First Flutters

**.**

 **Blood-drenched Butterfly Wings**

 **Chapter 1: First Flutters**

 **..**

 **Original Title:** **Akame Ga Kill**

 **Original Concept by:** **Takahiro and Tashiro**

 **..**

 **Written by: Skullcandyklive**

 **..**

 _...Imperial Year 1024, Day 12, 9:00 PM..._

 _._

Culture shock can happen to the best of people. It was simply an inevitable effect when one immerses another to an environment that is entirely different to the one they have grown accustomed to. The average human is simply incapable of acclimatizing theirselves to an entirely different culture, way of life, and set of attitudes in the blink of an eye.

So, when you put a country boy who has lived in the northern country side for his entire life in an urbanized environment, then it's all but inevitable for him to fall prey to the city's way of life or set of attitudes.

In this particular case, the country boy in question had fallen victim to a female con artist, who had used not only her sex appeal but said country boy's own naivety, and had his life savings swindled from him. Then again, it was more like the country boy in question trusted said female when she claimed to have connections and gave away all the money he had.

Either way, this country boy had experienced culture shock and had fallen prey to its jaws, which brings us back to current situation at hand.

Tatsumi, the country boy in question, was holding a brown burlap sack upside down above his gloved palms in the vain hope that he had some money left, as he stood on small lit-up limestone bridge.

Finally realizing that he was broke, Tatsumi gritted his teeth in frustration and the brown sac was wrinkled under his tightening grip.

"Damn that rack! No, wait, better yet damn that girl! I guess that was my educational experience!" Tatsumu yelled out in frustration, before gritting his teeth angrily.

Realizing that he not only had any money but nowhere to sleep as well, Tatsumi let out a resigned sigh as his shoulders slumped forward in defeat.

"None of the people back at the village were such liars." Tatsumi said out loud defeatedly. The mention of his village made his heart clench painfully in his chest.

The villagers had been counting on him, Sayo, and Ieyasu to bring fortune back to the village and yet here he was now, without a single coin to his name or a proper place to sleep for the night. Not only had he practically lost almost any opportunuty to join the imperial army, but had lost every gold coin he had. How was he supposed to help his starving village now?

"If only that lady didn't steal all my money." Tatsumi lamented mournfully, while trying very hard not to think about the consequences what could possibly be his blunder. "I hope Sayo and Ieyasu are doing better than I am right now"

With that, Tatsumi set his bag down against the bridge's limestone railing, before sitting down beside it and leaning against the same limestone railing.

"I guess, I'm sleeping outside." Tatsumi said resignedly as hunched his shoulders to make himself comfortable enough to sleep outside. "Don't really have much of a choice now do I? It's not like anyone would take in a homeless kid for free."

After finding a comfortable position, Tatsumi closed his eyes as his whole body gradually loosened and relaxed in preparation for sleep.

Not even a few seconds later,, the sounds of trotting hooves and spinning wooden wheels sounded on the footbridge and reached the country boy's ears and while his ears did perk up slightly his eyes still remained close; only slightly curious of the source of the noise.

"Probably just some rich old guy taking a ride in a carriage or something like that." Tatsumi thought with closed eyes as the sounds started getting louder as they drew near his spot. "They won't pay attention to some sleeping homeless kid"

As if on cue, the sounds of trotting and spinning stopped abruptly followed by the sounds of a horse's whinny and voices.

"Are we really doing this again, mi'lady?" A neutral, albeit somewhat exasperated voice said.

"You know I can't help it. It's just the way I am." A distinctly pubescent female voice defended indignantly.

"So it's a rich girl, huh?" Tatsumi thought absently. "She probably just wanted to walk around this bridge or look over the railing or enjoy the view or something."

A carriage door creaked open and footsteps could be heard getting louder and louder in Tatsumi's ears seemingly giving the impression that the girl was approaching him. Still, Tatsumi's eyes remained closed.

"Excuse me."

It wasn't until Tatsumi heard the pubescent female's voice sound right in front of him that the country boy finally opened his eyes. He had to blink a few times to clear his vision but once he did he lifted his head to look at the source of the voice, only to find a young girl bending at her wist to meet his eyes.

The little girl in front of Tatsumi was definitely young, maybe about 12-13 years of age. She had short wavy blonde hair with a periwnkle bun on the right side of her head, periwinkle blue eyes and fair white skin. She wore a white long-sleeved dress with a black corset, a periwinkle blue bodice, ribbon, and midiskirt, white socks and a pair of white boots.

"Um, if you need some place to rest your head tonight, you're welcome to come home with me" The girl offered with a kind smile on her face.

"..."

With his earlier encounter with a stranger from the capital still fresh in his mind, Tatsumi did nothing but stare at the girl blankly. Truth be told, he wanted to say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but the last time I trusted someone from the capital, they conned me out of my life savings, so no thanks." To Tatsumi, who had his last encounter with a stranger from the capital still fresh in his mind, this was all just too good to be true and this offer had to have some kind of catch or strings attached.

Still, Tatsumi didn't want to be openly rude or hostile to the young girl in front of him, especially if their offer was possibly (no matter how unlikely) made out of the goodness of her heart and he definitely didn't want to be too presumptuous by saying that all the people in the capital were scumbags because of a his early encounter with one. Afterall, everyone deserved to be given a chance, right?

Deciding to err with caution, Tatsumi replied flatly, albeit somewhat dubiously. "Uh, thanks but I'm broke." He might as well give it to her straight, in case she was doing this to make money or something along those lines.

The girl giggled at him as if he'd told a joke, before answering. "Well, if you weren't, then you wouldn't be here, now would you?" She said matter-of-factly.

"She has a point" Tatsumi thought to himself dumbly.

Before Tatsumi could offer any form of verbal reply, the two guards, who had steered the carriage before, walked up to them as the little girl stood up straight.

"Lady Aria has a bit of a weakness for helping those with nowhere to go" the guard on Aria's left who had his face exposed added.

"You really should accept her offer." The guard on Aria's right who had his face covered with a mask suggested.

"Pretty please?" The girl, Aria, said with a reassuring smile.

Maybe it was because Tatsumi didn't want to feel bad for rejecting such a kind offer, maybe it was because he didn't want to sleep against the railing of the footbridge, maybe this meeting was simply destined to take place in fabric of the space-time continuum or maybe it was simply because Tatsumi was a huge sucker when it came to blonde-haired pretty faced girls with or without big boobs, whatever the case, Tatsumi decided to throw caution to the wind and take a leap of faith.

With a significant blush covering his cheeks, Tatsumi looked away bashfully, unable to meet Aria's periwinkle blue eyes.

"Uh, well, it's better than sleeping out on the street, I guess." Tatsumi replied lamely.

Aria beamed happily at this response. "Great, let's go home!"

With that, Tatsumi was led inside to Aria's lush carriage, the door closed behind him, the carriage had started moving again and before he knew it, they had passed the footbridge as he was carried to his next destination, but whether or not this would be Tatsumi's final destination remains to be seen.

Either way, the country boy remained completely ignorant to the fate that awaited him as he rode in the carriage.

.

 _...Imperial Year 1024, Day 12, 11:00 PM..._

 _._

It has been almost two hours since Tatsumi had met Aria and accepted her offer to come stay at her home and so far, Tatsumi could safely say that he made the right decision by not being too presumptious of the girl's offer based on one bad experience. Ever since he arrived at Aria's massive estate, which was probably larger than his whole village, her parents had been nothing but perfectly hospitable in every sense of the word.

Once he had arrived, Aria had taken him to the living room to meet her parents, who weren't really all the surprised to find that their pubscent daughter had brought home a teenage boy with her. Tatsumu had been a bundle of nerves at the start of the meeting, which had been eased by the patriarch's words. Apparently, this wasn't such a big deal to them because they take in homeless strangers with nowhere to go all the time, so that made Tatsumi a little less nervous and a little more comfortable around them. From there, Tatsumi had told them about the story of why he had travelled all the way to the imperial capital.

For some reason that he couldn't figure out Tatsumi noticed that the family had visibly blanched when he mentioned that he had friends who came with him to the capital, though he didn't read too much into it.

After their chat, the family had prepared a warm meal for him and arranged for him to sleep in one of their guest rooms. Overall, Tatsumi felt pretty bad about himself for thinking bad of Aria's offer.

"I guess not all of the people in the capital are scumbags, huh?" Tatsumi said to no one in particular with a wry smile on his face as he looked out the large window of his guest room. "I hope you two are doing okay, Sayo, Ieyasu, wherever you two are."

A knock on the door brought Tatsumi out of his reverie.

Looking at the door, Tatsumi called out. "It's open." granting whoever was knockung to enter the guest room he was staying in.

The door opened revealing one of the maid servants that attended to Aria's family. This one had a pair of circular glasses, white skin, brown eyes, and black hair.

"Sir, you are still awake?" The servant asked in a puzzled tone.

"Um, yeah, sorry I couldn't really sleep, yet, so I just decided to look out the window." Tatsumi replied with a smile on his face as he looked out the window to view the late night cityscape of the imperial capital. "The capital is really beautiful at night, huh?"

"Indeed it is, sir." The servant agreed automatically, as if used to the action of telling someone what they wanted to hear.

An awkward silence stretched on as the servant kept shifting her feet uncomfortably, while Tatsumi stared at the view outside the window.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what is keeping you up at this time of night?" The servant asked curiously. "Is it something that I can help you with? Is the room not to your satisfaction?"

The assumption instantly sent Tatsumi to a panic. "No no no no, it's not that; definitely not that at all. If anything I'm grateful that lady Aria was generous and kind enough to offer me a place to stay, as well as, warm food to eat."

As those words left his mouth, the servant smiled at him pityingly. "I see" was all she said.

Wishing to clear the air between them in regards to why he wasn't asleep, Tatsumi tried to reassure the servant. "I was just thinking about my friends and wondering how they were, you know?" Tatsumi turned back to the window as his voice grew distant. "I mean, I know that they're capable of taking care of themselves and all, since they're both skilled fighters, but I just can't help but worry about them. I just hope that they don't meet any thieving liars when they get here."

"I'm afraid that thieving liars are the last things you should be worried about in the imperial capital, young sir."

At that cryptic remark, Tatsumi spun around to look at the servant with a puzzled expression on his face and question already forming on the tip of his tongue...

"What-"

...only to be met with a closed door; the servant was nowhere in sight, leaving Tatsumi to stew in his confusion.

"What did she mean by that? Does the capital have something worse than thieving liars?" Tatsumi said with a puzzled scratch of his head, before he ultimately shook his head and waved in dismissal. "Nah, it's the imperial capital this is where people can make an honest living or join the military and climb up the ranks. there can't be anything worse than thieving liars here and if there is I'm sure the imperial guards will take care of...whatever that is."

With his piece said, Tatsumi started walking towards his guest room's bed with a stifled yawn, his eyes drooping sleepily with lethargy. "Besides, what could possibly be worse than lying thief?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, Tatsumi's eyes suddenly snapped open, his body went as stiff as a board, an overwhelming sense of dread rested in the pit of his stomach and all signs of sleepiness disappeared in an instant as a dark and heavy presence beared down on his very being and crept up his spine; one that he was rather familiar with.

Killing Intent.

Granted, it didn't seem to be solely focused on him, rather it was looming over the whole mansion itself but even so, the sheer intensity of the KI was enough to keep him rooted on the spot, completely petrified by his own fear.

"What the hell is this?" Tatsumi thought to himself with a shocked and fearful expression plastered on his face. "I-I've never felt killing intent this intense before...w-was this what that maid was talking about earlier? What or who could be giving out this much bloodlust?"

At that moment, the still silence of the cold night air was abruptly shattered by the telltale sound of metal ripping through flesh, followed by the unmistakable smell of blood.

Even then, Tatsumi could not bring himself to move, still too petrified by the overwhelming fear he felt from the looming bloodlust that crept up the back of his neck. Realizing this, Tatsumi gritted his teeth in frustration; a member of Aria's family, one of the people who had taken him in might have just been killed and here he was standing around like scared little boy, unable to muster up the courage to come to the family's aid.

 _"Dammit, Tatsumi, pull yourself together!"_ Tatsumi berated himself mentally. _"Weren't you going to enlist in the imperial army just a few hours ago?! You can't just freeze up in the middle of a fight like you're doing now!"_

With sheer willpower alone, Tatsumi forced down his fear and sense of self-preservation and focused on his single-minded determination.

Wanting to act while his bravado lasted and adrenaline still coursed through his veins, Tatsumi ran out of the guest room and into the hallways in hopes of finding the perpetrator and stopping them before they could hurt another member of Aria's family.

However, he stopped short in front of a window when he caught a glimpse of something outside. Without thinking, Tatsumi turned his head towards the window.

In front of the blood moon and illuminated by its scarlet light, six silhouettes stood in midair, motionlessly overlooking the entire mansion from their perch with eyes that were devoid of any emotion.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw movement and Tatsumi looked down on the front yard, only to see three guards preparing their weapons and charging forward. Tatsumi couldn't find it in himself to do anything but stare at the coming confrontation, probably considering whether or not he should to interfere.

Suddenly, the two silhouttes in the middle dropped down from their perch and landed on the front yard in crouches a few feet in front of the guards. The two silhouttes turned out to be two girls who beared a striking resemblance to each other, from the color of their hair and skin to the outfits they chose to wear and the weapons they drew. The only difference between them was their hairstyle, eye color, and heights, at least that what it looked from Tatsumi's viewpoint.

All of a sudden, a third figure crashed behind the pair of girls, this one donning some kind of suit of armor with a spear holstered at the back.

The pair of girls in front rose up to their full height and slightly unsheathed their respective katanas, the armored man following suit by unholstering his spear, as all three of them walked forward slowly to face off against the guards, who had already taken on fighting stances.

"Do not let either of those swords touch you." One of the guards reminded the other two, before he gritted his teeth and tightened the grip on his sword. "Grrr, let's go!"

Two guards charged the girl's head on. They didn't get far though because in a single instant, both girls unsheathed their katanas, sprinted towards the guards and slashed their throats open, reappearing several paces behind the two guards. Needless to say, both of the guards were dead on the ground.

"Who the hell are these monsters?!" Seeing the fate of his two comrades, the third guard tried to flee and escape, only for the armored man to throw the red spear through the guard's torso once his back was turned.

Numbed by the shock, Tatsumi stumbled back a few steps as he tried to process what just happened in the past few seconds, but the only conclusion he came to was:

"They were wiped out in seconds" Tatsumi thought numbly.

At once the crippling fear started to immobilize him again as his bravado was abruptly shattered in the span of a few seconds. Tatsumi shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the fear as he tried to gather his courage and zero in on his earlier bout of single-minded determination.

"I have to save Miss Aria!" Tatsumi said to himself as he willed his body to move and sprint down the hallways again, this time in the hopes of saving the girl that had saved him.

.

"There you are!"

Both Aria and her guard were just a few meters away from the storage house when they turned to see who had spoken, only find Tatsumi a few feet in front of them with his hands on his knees and his postures slumped while he panted.

"Tatsumi?" Aria asked worriedly.

The guard just let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, great you made it. I'll hide the young lady and wait for the guards."

Tatsumi was just about to say that the other guards have already been killed, but before he could speak the guard continued.

"See what you can do to stall the enemy until then, got it?"

 _That_ got Tatsumi's attention. Reeling back as if struck by a physical blow the country boy looked at the guard in disbelief.

"You really expect me to take on-" Tatsumi cut himself off with a yelp as soon as the overbearing killing intent washed over him and two simultaneous nearly silent thuds sounded behind him.

Hoping that he was wrong, Tatdumi looked over his shoulder, but sure enough the two girls who had killed two of the guards had landed in a crouch a few feet behind him, their eyes devoid of any emotion and their katanas already drawn.

"Well, looks like its too late to complain!" Tatsumi swallowed his fear and focused on his resolve, before drawing his sword and taking on a fighting stance as he spun around to face the girls.

The two girls sprinted towards and Tatsumi braced himself for a fight as they neared him at an alarming rate.

"You're not a target." Both girls stated at the same time, one voice sounding monotone and one voice came out light and teasing.

"Huh?" Was all Tatsumi said as his stance slacked.

Before he could properly register their words, the two girls suddenly disappeared from in front of him.

It was only when he felt two pairs of feet land on his shoulders and used them as a springboard, making him stumble forward, that Tatsumi realized that the two girls had already gotten past him, effortlessly at that, which was only confirmed when he turned to gape at them over his shoulder.

They landed a few feet behind him in crouches.

"Dammit!" The guard cursed as he raised his weapon and sprayed machine gun fire at the two assassins.

None of the bullets hit their mark as both girls gracefully and changed directions with inhuman speed and in such a way that didn't allow the guard to hit them both of them at the same time. The guard's fruitless efforts continued for a few more seconds before the short-haired girl with black eyes finally managed to close the distance between them...

"Eliminate" the girl said in the same light teasing tone.

...and slashed the guard straight through his torso, cleanly bisecting the man at the waist.

Bearing witness to all of this, Aria took a few steps backward with a fearful expression on her face, before she stumbled and tripped over her own two feet, landing on her butt with a yelp. The blonde-haired girl looked up in fear when a shadow loomed over her and sure enough, the red-eyed assassin stood before her with emotionless eyes as she drew her sword back for the coup de grace.

"Eliminate" the girl said with an eerie monotone.

Snapping out of his dazed stupor, Tatsumi ran up to the girl before she could kill Aria.

"Stop right there!" He yelled as he swung his sword sideways at the red-eyed assassin, who dodged it effortlessly and retreated a few paces in front of the shorter black-eyed assassin, who was eying him with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

"We already told you: You're not a target" the shorter black-eyed assassin said, sounding both annoyed and puzzled. "You don't have to die."

"But you're going to kill this behind me, right?"

"Yup." Both girls deadpanned.

"Yup?!" Tatsumi exclaimed incredulously.

The tension in the air was palpable as the two parties stared each other down.

"So, you won't step aside?" The red-eyed assassin finally asked in her trademark deadpan monotone.

"You should probably move." The black-eyed assassin advised half-heartedly as she looked on uninterestedly.

Tatsumi was not swayed. "I'm not gonna back down, now!" He said with finality.

With his piece said, the black-eyed assassin shot him a pitying smile as she gestured with her hand in a mock goodbye.

"Hmph." The red-eyed assassin raised her blade, poised to strike at any moment. "Then you've made you choice"

Instantly, Tatsumi paled and felt his courage shrivel up somewhere near his crotch before his vision started to blur and his body began to feel heavy.

 _What the heck?_ Tatsumi thought panickingly as he shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the sensation. _Pull it together, Tatsumi! This is no time to get cold feet._

Taking advantage of her opponent's apparent disorientation, the red-eyed assassin charged towards Tatsumi, her blade poised to behead him.

Luckily, Tatsumi managed to raise his sword just in time to block the strike and the two of them locked swords, both parties pressing against the other in an attempt to break the stalemate. The red-eyed assassin suddenly stepped back, causing Tatsumi to stumble forward clumsily, still feeling incredibly disoriented, and swung his sword sideways, only for his opponent to dodge by jumping up. The motion of the clumsy swing that missed threw off his balance as he staggered sideways, but before he could regain his footing, the red-eyed assassin kicked off his shoulder, using it as a springboard and making him stumble forward.

Tatsumi turned to face his assailant. "What-" was all he managed to get out before he felt the force of a piercing stab on his chest, pushing out all the air in hus lungs in shock, before he fell to the ground like a sack of potatos.

"Tatsumi!" Aria yelled out in worry.

A tense silence hung in the air and all eyes were on the seemingly dead corpse of Tatsumi lying on the grass.

"Just cut the act already, you're not fooling either of us here, we know you're not dead" the black-eyed assassin called out with an unimpressed look on her face as she twirled her katana with one hand and shoved cookies into her mouth with the other.

At that, Tatsumi stood up unsteadily as he looked at his opponent, who fixed a monotonous gaze at him.

"How'd you know I was only pretending to be dead?" He queried with a small smile on his face.

"Because I didn't feel my blade bite flesh." The red-eyed assassin explained monotonously, her katana still pointed at him.

"Heh." Was all Tatsumi said before reaching into the inside of his sweater to pull out a small wooden statue. "I guess the villagers were looking out for me, afterall."

The black-eyed assassin just sighed impatiently as he looked at the country boy with annoyance. "Hurry up and finish him off already, Big Sis, I'm running out of cookies" the short-haired girl whined slightly.

Not showing any outward reaction, the red-eyed assassin simply readied her blade in front of her. "Eliminate." With her piece said, she charged straight the now-unarmed country boy.

Seeing his death literally come for him, Tatsumi began to waffle. "Hey, wait a minute, lady! You just want to steal this girl's money, don't you?"

The assassin remained unfazed as she drew her hand back for a wide swing at the boy's neck.

"You don't have to kill her! This isn't a war there's no need to kill innocent people!"

His pleads fell on deaf ears.

"Please."

The assassin was directly in front of him and Tatsumi froze in fear as the blade zeroed in on his vulnerable neck.

 _I don't think she's listening to me._ Tatsumi belatedly realized as he could nothing but watch as the blade neared his neck. He was sure that this was going to be the end of him when-

"Hold up."

The red-eyed assassin was suddenly pulled back by the collar of her shirt, leaving both Tatsumi and Aria confounded.

"Leone!" The black-eyed assassin whined in the background.

"Sorry, Kurome!" The girl, Leone, called out with a cheeky smile, causing the black-eyed assassin, Kurome, to pout and cross her arms.

"What are you doing?" The red-eyed assassin questioned in her usual deadpan.

"We've got some time left and I kinda owe this guy a favor." Leone answered her captive, before looking up at Tatsumi with a cheeky smile and wink. "I'm pretty sure he'd like to cash it in now."

"Ahhh..." It took awhile for Tatsumi to recognize the blonde-haired girl, both because of her extra add-ons and his increasingly blurry vision, but when he finally did his first reaction was...

"Hey! You're the girl with the boobs!"

...to yell out his frustration in the form of an accusation.

The blonde lioness, Leone, seemed to take all of this in stride though, since all she did was wave off the accusation with a close-eyed smile.

"Hehehe, yup, that's what they call me!" She said cheekily in good nature, which made Tatsumi grit his teeth further in frustration as he continued to point the wooden statue accusingly.

Leone's expression and tone of voice suddenly turned serious as she spoke her next words. "Listen, kid, earlier you were concerned that we were here to kill innocent people."

This caught Tatsumi so off guard that he temporarily forget his frustrations as he stared at Leone questioningly, oblivious to the fact that Aria had paled behind him, while she walked all the way to the storage house. Leone stopped in front of the doors and with a single earth-shattering punch demolished them completely, before stepping aside and leaning against the doorway.

Genuinely curious, though still keeping his guard up in case this was a trap, Tatsumi made his way to the storage house.

"Here it is. Welcome to the capital, kid." Leone saie bitterly as soon as Tatsumi stepped inside the storage house.

A decision he wished he hadn't made.

Immediately, his gag reflex was triggered and Tatsumi had to put a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from emptying his stomach contents right then and there as a ghastly odor assasulted his olfactory senses.

However, even as he did so his eyes were incapable of shifting their gaze from the scene in front of them.

Mutilated and maimed corpses as far as the eye could see were poised in various specific conditions that led up to their death; some bodies were drawn and quartered on a torture table with several limbs forcibly torn off from blood-caked, maggot-infested bodies by ropes that were attached to four wheels on each corner, some bodies were imprisoned in a cage, gripping the bars in desperation, their skin peppered with dark red sores and their gaping faces etched in an eternal, malformed scream, and the rest of the bodies were dangling from the ceiling either by a noose arounded their necks or shackled by their hands and eacg and every last one of them sported gaping lacerations all over their bodies and blood-caked bones sticking out of where their arms or legs used to be, some hanging bodies were even missing the entire lower half of their body, exposing their intestines and inner organs for them to plop down on the blood-coated floor.

Needless to say, Tatsumi felt incredibly lightheaded and it wasn't just because of his earlier unexplained disorientation either. His whole body felt like it had just been drenched in ice water, cold and numbed, as his mind struggled to reconcile the image that was being displayed in front of him and the image of a smiling Aria wgo offered him a place to stay.

"What is all of this?" Tatsumi asked in a horrified voice.

"We learned that they fancied picking up out of town newcomers from the countryside and then torture them to death for their own sick twisted entertainment" Leone explained as Tatsumi numbly walked forward. "That's the reality of thus poor innocent happy little family."

"These people really did this?" Tatsumi asked hollowly, his voice suggesting that he wasn't entirely there.

Leone nodded in response. "Yes, they did and the guards are just as guilty for keeping it a secret"

"She's lying!" Aria exclaimed loudly, as she stuttered out excuses, which Tatsumi failed to hear since his hearing started fading.

With his eyes still fixed on the rotting corpses in front of him, dark spots started appearing in his vision and his body suddenly pitched forward from his unexplained disorientation. Unable to find the strength to fight off the creeping feeling of unconsciousness, Tatsumi started to succumb. However, before he did, the country boy managed to put two and two together and realize the source of his disorientation.

 _I was gonna end up just like them._ Were Tatsumi's last thoughts as everything went black.

Before the country boy could hit the ground though, Leone appeared by his side and caught him in his arms with a frown marring her features.

A tense silence hung in the air and for a long moment no one said a thing.

"Well, isn't that ironic" the black-eyed girl, Kurome, said nonchalantly as she pointed at Tatsumi with her sword as she addressed Aria. "He was your best chance at surviving the night and you inadvertently prevented him from saving your own life by poisoning him." Her eyes and voice suddenly turned sharp as daggers as she delivered her next words. "Any last words?"

Before Aria could so much as make another sound, a blade suddenly protruded out of her throat, rendering her unable to speak as she drowned in her own blood. Aria fell to the ground with a thump, revealing Akame standing right behind her.

"All targets eliminated." Was all she said as she sheathed her sword.

"Glad that's over with." Kurome muttered as she sheathed her own sword and started walking away. "Let's go."

"Wait."

Both assassins turned to Leone, ome looking more monotonous and one looking far too impatient, who was still carrying the unconscious boy in a bridal carry.

"Don't you think we should take him with us?"

The two assassins simply stared at him with blank expressions.

"Well, we could use an extra pair of hands, plus he seemed really skilled to be able to fight off Akame." Leone reasoned with a shrug.

Kurome scoffed disbelievingly at her words "Lucky is more like it. He didn't even stand a chance against Big sis" she muttered under her breath.

Leone simply smiled widely at them, before walking towards the two assassins casually, still carrying the unconscious boy, as if she hadn't heard Kurome's retort.

The two assassins simply followed their comrade's example and walked back to where their other allies were, one looking more displeased than the other.

With their mission now complete, the assassin group known as Night Raid disappeared into the darkness with a new addition to their ranks.

.

Unbeknownst to the recently departed group of assassins, three figures had been watching the scene from afar, unnoticed and unseen by prying eyes.

Three figures shrouded in dark red cloaks stepped out of the treeline with a casual step to their pace. Ronin, Kitsune, and Monarch surveyed the scene before them with varying emotions hidden behind their ivory white masks.

"It seems we needn't have worried too much, sisters." Kitsune spoke up after a bout of silence. "everything still worked out in the end. The boy is still with Night Raid and he is well on his way to the path carved by blood"

"It seems we overestimated the effect of our interference when we decided to save the boy's friends, sister." Ronin said with her eyes on Monarch, who stood silently a few paces in front of them.

"Do not grow too complacent, sisters." Monarch said monotonously. "If anything, I feel that you underestimate the effects our interference will have on the boy."

Kitsune raised an eyebrow behind her mask and looked at Monarch, who still hadn't turned around to face them. "Oh? Pray tell, what are these effects that you fear may come to pass?"

"For one, the boy will likely have no peace of mind, while under the belief that his friends are still somewhere in this hellhole known as the imperial capital, which may lead to distractedness and inability to concentrate on his training. For another, he had yet to take human life, which may lead to a myriad of troubles since he is now with a group of assassins." Monarch recited monotonously as she started walking towards Aria's corpse. "I believe that saving those two caused far more problems that they are probably worth."

"You must not underestimate their value, Monarch." Ronin insisted, some semblance of emotion showing in her voice. "They are undeniably skilled fighters and cherished friends of the boy. They might prove more useful than you anticipate."

"Perhaps" Monarch allowed noncommitantly. "However, none of that changes the fact that several contingencies must be accounted for, if our plans are to have any chance of success. We have already failed to take into account the fact that the little sister would be in Night Raid and that alone could cause a myriad of complications"

"Should I watch over the assassin group then, Sister?" Kitsune asked monotonously.

Monarch nodded. "Yes, if nothing else, we need to be certain of the boy's condition. As of right now we know very little about what effect all of this has had on, so it would be best to have some form of certainty regarding that little grey area, in order for us to determine whether or not our interference would be necessary."

"Understood, Sister." Kitsune said monotonously.

"Ronin, please retrieve the girl's corpse so that we may depart. The last thing we need is for this pathetic excuse for an empire to manufacture the poison coursing through that girl's veins and using it for their own machinations."

"Understood, Sister." Ronin said with a nod, before walking over to the corpse and dragging it by the hand towards the treeline where they came from as her sisters did the same.

Unseen and unnoticed by anyone, the sisters of the blood moon disappeared into the night.

.

 **-End Chapter 1-**

 **.**

 **Okay, so not only is Tatsumi oblivious to where his friends are, but he also hasn't killed anyone yet. Exactly how would these changes affect the country boy's growth and potential, as well as, the events to come, I wonder. Also, Kurome's in Night Raid so...Yay?**

 **Anyway, that's all I have to say.**

 **See you next time.**


End file.
